Tuesday, 19. September 2006
Study: Vista Will Add 50,000 Jobs in EU
A Microsoft-commissioned study by research firm IDC indicates 50,000 jobs would be created across six countries in Europe as a result of Vista. While the study confirmed Microsoft is expected to profit off the operating system, the profits for partners would be much greater, it said.
"If you add up all the spending on hardware and software that runs on Microsoft operating systems, as well as all the services around installing and maintaining Microsoft applications and solutions, you quickly come up with a number much bigger than Microsoft's revenues," IDC's John Gantz, Al Gillen and Marcel Warmerdam wrote in the study.
The study covered the UK, France, Denmark, Poland and Spain, who comprise two-thirds of IT spending in the EU. More than 150,000 companies employing 400,000 people across these countries will either develop or sell products for Vista next year. 650,000 more would work in the IT departments of these companies, the study says.
A key finding is that Vista will not just sustain the existing Windows economy, but create thousands of new jobs. Using a baseline for economic growth due to existing versions of Windows, the research firm determined that Windows-related employment would jump by 100,000 jobs next year.
"IDC believes that more than half of the gain in Windows-related employment will be specifically related to Windows Vista. It is growth that IDC believes would not occur were Windows Vista not in the market," the IDC analysts wrote. "Windows Vista...will infuse significant new energy into the market in its first 12 months of shipment, driving important job growth and new industry revenues."